2011 Viña Koyle Auma, Los Lingues, Colchagua Valley

Last time I tasted the 2010, so now it's time for the second vintage, which is the 2011 Auma -- the top-of-the-range blend that changes with the vintage; in 2011, it contained Carménère (37%), Cabernet Sauvignon (25%), Malbec (18%), Syrah (13%) and Petit Verdot (7%) from their Los Lingues Estate in the mountain part of Colchagua, the Colchagua Andes appellation. The vines were planted in 2008 at 500-550 meters on clay and basalt soils. The uncrushed grapes fermented with indigenous yeasts in 600-liter oak barrels that are rolled and no pumps whatsoever are used. Each variety matured separately for two years in 225-liter barrels, except for the Syrah that goes into 400-liter barrels, all made of French oak. After the time in oak, the different wines are blended and put into egg-shaped cement vats for a further nine months before bottling, completing a total upbringing of some 33 months before the wine is put in bottle. There are plenty of notes of cigar ash, balsamic woods and some roasted aromas -- a quite classical Bordeaux blend -- with blackberries, tobacco and graphite. The wine is terribly balanced with great freshness, still marked by the élevage, but nothing a little bottle aging would not fix. A monumental kind of wine. 3,700 bottles produced.
Luis Gutiérrez - 31/12/2015